How Campbell Soup's Salty Snacks Are Keeping The Company Aloft
It's been an eventful year for the Campbell Soup Company. Earlier this summer, Campbell's launched the Flavorup! line of flavor-packed sauces. The company also took on 3,500 new employees (per Reuters). For good reason, too — running Campbell's is a pretty massive operation.
Believe it or not, the Campbell Soup Company is the face behind many popular grocery store brands that consumers know and love, including V8 juice, Swanson broth, Pace salsa, Pepperidge Farm cookies, Prego pasta sauce, and more. Campbell's condensed soups are popular ingredients in home-cooking, as well. You might even have a Cream of Mushroom can lying around in your pantry right now. Campbell's Goldfish crackers boast legendary television commercials, typically featuring animated aquatic crackers "swimming" around stacks of books on human-sized desks and hanging out under the bed in a kid's room. They're "the snack that smiles back" for a reason — and you may have just sang that jingle in your head as you read it.
But adults love Campbell's Goldfish crackers, too – so much so, in fact, that according to recent data, sales of Campbell's salty snacks are keeping the company afloat at this very moment.
Step aside, sweet tooth
The Campbell Soup Company owns Goldfish Crackers and Kettle and Cape Cod chip brands and this year, according to Food Business News, the rising popularity of these salty snacks increased Campbell's entire snack division sales by 9%. In fact, according to Mark Clouse, president and CEO of Campbell's, snack sales are up 3% from last year and 6% from the previous quarter. In total, "end market consumption" of these brands saw a whopping 11% increase from the previous fiscal year and 26% three-year growth. "A particularly competitive segment is total salty snacks, where we were the only major player who grew unit share in the fourth quarter as we've worked hard to keep price and promotion balanced as supply recovered," Clouse stated.
These positive numbers come in spite of record-high inflation (9.1%, per PBS), which reportedly raised Campbell's overall operating costs by 15% (per Food Business News). In recent months, folks have been cutting back on splurge foods due to inflation, and snack food sales have been suffering as a result, says CNN. According to a recent Consumer Price Index report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the "food at home" index (which deals with grocery prices and home-cooking) saw a whopping 13% increase this year — the biggest spike in 43 years.
Still, even though food inflation may stick around for longer than most consumers would probably prefer, it looks like Campbell's may be able to withstand the storm with the best of 'em.